Children's Books: A Guide to the Library

Our collection has been divided as follows in each library of our system:

New Books are those most recently received and have a sticker in the upper right hand corner of the cover labeled NEW. New children's books are available for loan for 28 days and may be renewed once.

Picture Books are traditionally books with lots of pictures and a little text, though some now have more text for older readers and some have no text at all. Look for the big yellow stickers with the first letter of the author's last name on the spine. Picture books are available for loan for 28 days and may be renewed once.

Holiday Books can be fiction, non-fiction, picture or board books and they are labeled with a sticker corresponding to the holiday on the spine of the book. Holiday books are available for loan for 14 days and may be renewed once.

Board Books are smaller books with thicker pages and are especially intended for very small children who tend to be less gentle with books. Board books can be found in their own section in the library and are available for loan for 28 days and may be renewed once.

Easy Readers are for those just learning to read so they have large-sized print, few words per page, and lots of white space. Easy Readers have been marked with a red sticker with the white E on the spine. Within the Easy Reader category, books are divided by difficulty and labeled as such: the earliest readers with few words, big spaces, and many pictures are labeled with a pink dot. Slightly harder books with more difficult words have a yellow dot. Green dot books have longer words and may have chapter breaks in the story. The hardest level labeled with a blue dot are the early chapter books with more challenging themes and ideas.

Juvenile Fiction refers to those books written for kids from about grades 4th-6th. Look for the big blue stickers with the first letter of the author's last name on the spine. Young Adult Fiction, or those books written for those in grades 7th and up, can be found in the young adult are of the library and are marked with a YA blue sticker. Both Juvenile and Young Adult Fiction are available for loan for 28 days and may be renewed once.

Non-fiction books are those written for information. They can be found arranged in the non-fiction shelves by their Dewey Decimal number. (You can also find Easy Reader Non-fiction books in this collection. Look for the big red stickers with the white E on the spine on the Non-fiction shelves.) Young Adult Non-ficition can be found in the Adult Non-fiction area. Both Non-fiction Juvenile and Young Adult books are available for loan for 28 days and may be renewed once.

Audio/Visual Materials are books on tape, CD music, and DVDs. There are AV materials available in both Juvenile and Young Adult areas of the library. Books on tape or CD are available for loan, up to 5 items for 14 days and may be renewed once. Music CDs are available for loan, up to 5 items for 7 days and may be renewed once. DVDs are available to loan, up to 3 items for 3-7 days and may be renewed once.

Magazines are available to take home. We try to have a variety of magazines to suit a wide range of ages and interests. Both Juvenile and Young Adult magazines are available for loan for 7 days and may be renewed once.

Adaptive toys are available for all ages and abilities to loan. These are toys and learning devices that have been modified for children with special needs. The adaptive toys are available to loan. up to 3 toys for 7 days and can be renewed once.